The world has changed in the past few years into a technology world, hardly will you see any business running successfully in the world today without having a website.
Where the magic happens is your business website and if it’s jeopardized, you could lose a lot. Your website is an important factor in your online presence. Whether it’s for your business, a personal brand or a blog, it’s liable to be the connection between your brand and the audience you’re trying to reach. A good website will attract and keep customers in any industry and you will make a profit by investing in one.
Like all valuable things that attract different people. However, a good site will generally be a target for hackers who would want to damage it. Most people do not think that their website could be a mark for hackers, but it happens all the time or every day. They place spammy links on it or hold it till you pay a ransom. Furthermore, studies have shown that more than 150,000 small-business websites could be infected with malware within a year in the U.S. alone. This malware could cause devastating harm to your brand, that is why it is advisable to invest your time in making sure your websites are protected.
What is a website?
A website is a batch of web pages that share a single domain name. These web pages comprise information that displays about the business or organization and is usually made up of aspects such as videos, text and photos.
Websites can be developed and maintained by a person, organization or business to serve different purposes.
Consumers need a device with a web browser, such devices could be smartphones, laptops or tablets with the support of a good Internet connection to access a website. Once users have access to this, they can type the website’s address on the address bar using a device or search engine such as Google or Bing to access the website.
Websites come in unlimited categories, including e-commerce sites, educational sites, news sites, tech sites, forums, social media sites, and many more.
Uses of Website
- It helps in interacting with other users. Social networking sites allow others to connect.
- It provides information to people.
- It Entertains people: Websites such as YouTube and Netflix allow you to watch movies and shows, listen to music or play games.
- It allows buying and selling of items all around the world. E-commerce websites like Amazon and eBay allow consumers to sell and purchase items online.
Why do you need Website Security?
Security is something people, businesses or organizations of any size cannot ignore and our purpose is to make it as simple as locks on home doors. Think of protecting your website like safeguarding your home where things like locks, security cameras, and alarm systems help to keep you protected from thieves. The same procedure can be applied to your website to keep it secured.
Statistics have shown that there is an attack every 39 seconds on average on the web and on average 42% of new websites are hacked.
Other recent Statistics also prove that a regular small to medium-sized business website is attacked about 40 times daily. This is a lot and causes a lot of havoc to your business if not governed well with secure security.
Read also: 8 reasons you invest in website security
8 Useful Security Tips for Website Security
These website security tips from experts can safeguard your business site if you follow them and work on them.
- Keep strong password management tools
Begin with password management tools.
Endeavour to use a strong password and ensure you have a different password for every account so that a hacker can’t access all your accounts when one of them gets risked.
To protect your site against brute force, passwords should be complex, containing different letters, numbers or special characters which must be at least 10 characters long.
However, you can let your password manager compute a strong password for you so that it would be extremely difficult to brute force them.
- Choose a secure and good hosting provider
Choosing a secure and good hosting provider for your website is one of the best tips for your website security.
Make sure the host you choose is conscious of threats and committed to keeping your website secure. Select a host who delivers the best technical support whenever necessary even when your site is hacked.
Occasionally your website can be secure but if the host is targeted and their security is poor it can get your website compromised as well.
Read more about hosting security before choosing one.
- Avoid multiple sites in one server
Resist operating multiple sites on one server. Always, create a separate database for each site instead of using different prefixes.
It helps you to keep the sites separated and will save you a lot of money and damages if one of them gets hacked.
- Periodic back-ups
No matter how much you want to avoid disasters and avoid losing all your hard work, something is inevitable and it can still happen, so having backups is one of the best decisions for you to restore your website after an incident.
Endeavour to back up your website occasionally, Some hosting providers provide these services for you but no matter how secure your website is, there is always room for improvement.
Moreover, having an off-site backup kept is possibly the best solution no matter what happens.
- Keep your Website clean and updated
Each application, plugin, database on your website is always a link for hackers. However, make sure you delete files, databases, or applications from your site that are no longer in use and that are not important for the website anymore. It is also important to keep your file structure organized and updated to keep track of changes and make it easier to delete old files.
- Employ a Security Expert
There are security organizations that offer security services, having a relationship with a company that provides security services can be a lifesaver for your website when it comes to protecting it.
Although most of the little things on your site can be handled by you. You still need some security measures that should be handled by an expert. Firms that provide security services can regularly scan your website for susceptibilities, perform entire website security audits, monitor for malicious activity, and be on check whenever a repair is required. Hiring a Security expert will help unexpectedly save your website.
- Try a web application firewall.
The web application firewall is another great tip you can use to protect and secure your site.
There are many types of firewalls, some hardware-based and others entirely software. They help in analyzing all bits of traffic in and out of your website server and prevent most hacking attempts or damages. The firewall helps you to screen and remove any data that might want to cause damage to your work.
Currently, the most common ones are cloud-based. They may be expensive, but they will serve their purpose in the long run.
Read also: important facts about MVP and how much it cost
- Install security plugins
Having security plugins will save you from hackers and help you have a secured website. Having built your website with a content management system (CMS), ensure you improve your website with security plugins that actively obstruct website hacking attempts. Most of the main CMS options have security plugins available and they are mostly for free.
Conclusions
Protecting your site and learning how to secure it against hackers is one of the best decisions in keeping your site healthy and safe in the long run!
Just securing your home, these steps to make your website more secure are like how you protect your home from thieves using locks. Always endeavour to keep seeking security protection for your website; soar digital can help you protect your website and make sure you don’t allow the bad guys to win.
